The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-03-24
COTTON SEED OIL IN FOOD.
Used Not Only In Lard, but Largely In
Many Other Articles OF Diet.

COTTON SEED OIL IN FOOD.
Used Not Only in Lard, but Largely in
Many Other Articles OF DAet.
A good deal Of attention was attracted
yesterday by the comments of the Times
on the subject Of the wholesale adultera-
tion of food products by the use of cotton
seed oil. The extent of that adulteration
can only be surmised by the open confes-
sion of Mr.. Phillip D. Armour that his
firm uses millions Of gallons annually iu
the manufacture of lard. That which is
used in the making of lard is but the
indication of that which goes into other
food products. The cotton seed oil peo-
pie themselves endorse the declaration of
the Times, that if the manufacturers of
food use this oil, they should be willing
to acknowledge it publicly. According
to the oil makers, there is only purity in
their product. Being simply vegetable,
it is free from the suspicion Of diseiae
and bad qualities that other adulterants
might have. It has no tinge of putrid
refuse in it, they say; it is wholly
healthy. And upon this account they
insist that it would be good rather than
bad thing for them, as we'll as for the
public, if the law required a specific
labelling of the products into which it
enters, and, going further, they aver that
it would be even a wise and beneficial
thing for manufacturers like Armour &
Co. to be open in the matter of dealing
with the public, inasmuch as the public
would recognize on investigation that the
use of the oil as an Ingredient would be
healthful while cheapening cost.
There seems no longer to be the ardent
desire that once was supposed to exist
for keeping in utter secrecy the business
corporation having the monopoly of this
cotton seed oil production. A gentle.
man largely interested in the Cotton
Seed Oil Trust, as the corporation is
called, gave some interesting facts
regarding that business yesterday. The
$500, 900 bales of cotton that makes the
crop of the country, he Gays, turns out
3,250,000 tons of cotton seed, most of
which falls to the ground and is unhar.
vested. About 100000 tons are used
now, and that sends something like
100000 into the South as on abso.
lutely new income to planters there.
The oil mills in the trust comprise ninety
out of the ninety-6ve mills that have
been established in the country, all of
the large mills in fact. The trust also
controls twenty.seyen re6neriss, and the
re6neries and mills alike Ire controlled
by niue trustees, who have issued certi6.
Gates to the various companies represent
ing their value; this whole capitalization
is somewhs. l!esss sian $S44o0, ,00O, ,ooee ~ss'uch
monopoly Of course has vast profits in
it, it being estimated that at least $3.50
is net profit on each ton they use annu.
ally.
With what amounts to centralized
management of the ninety mills in the
trust extensive economies of course are
possible, and thus, even allowing for
large profits, it is that it is found posi-.
BILE by such food producers as Armour &
Co. to buy quantities of it at prices that
enable them to put it into lard to
cheaper that article. It is an open
secret that much more than a half of the
olive that is consumed in this country is
in fact merely this same oil of the Ameri.
can cotton seed. 1T is sent also in large
quantities to England and Germany,
where it enters into lardine, butterine
and olive oil the same as on this side of
the water. Holland imports great car
goes of it to make Dutch cheese. The
oil refinery at Providence sold 4,0G0
barrels last year to preserve sardines in.
Soap is made by the thousand boxes in
Chicago with the same base. And along
with all this is the assertion that the
industry as yet is in its infancy. There
is no telling into how many food pro-
ducts it will enter speedily, nor how
largely.
1t is stated that in addition to making
$3.50 on each ton Of seed used in making
oil, the trust obtains ESQ pounds Of
"cake" from the crushed seed, which is
marketable at good price for food for
cattle in the country and in Europe
Neag York Times.